European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says that increasing Europe’s defence capabilities will fill the gaps in military supplies to Ukraine.
Speaking in Strasbourg on Tuesday at a plenary session of the European Parliament devoted to discussing the special European Council meeting of March 6, which considered the issue of European and Ukrainian defence, von der Leyen said: “We need a surge in European defence, and we need it now. We need it first and foremost because of the situation in Ukraine. There is the urgent need to fill the gaps in Ukraine’s military supplies and to provide Ukraine with solid security guarantees.”
The President of the European Commission stated that “the European security order is being shaken, and so many of our illusions are being shattered.”
“After the end of the Cold War, some believed that Russia could be integrated in Europe’s economic and security architecture. Others hoped that we could rely indefinitely on America’s full protection. And so, we lowered our guard. We cut our defence spending from routinely averaging more than 3.5% to less than half of that. We thought we were enjoying a peace dividend, but in reality we were just running a security deficit. The time of illusions is over now. Europe is called to take greater charge of its own defence, not in some distant future but already today, not with incremental steps but with the courage that the situation requires,” she explained.
Von der Leyen stressed that this is not only about Ukraine, but also about the security of all of Europe and the entire continent. “Putin has proven time and again that he is a hostile neighbour. He cannot be trusted, he can only be deterred. And we know that Russia’s military complex is outproducing ours. If we look at the military expenditure in real terms, the Kremlin is spending more than all of Europe combined. Europe’s production is still on a lower order of magnitude,” the President of the European Commission stated.
According to her, the range of threats facing the EU is becoming wider every day. “And this is more dangerous, today, the era we live in, so Europe really needs to step up. This is the goal of the plan that I presented to leaders last week. It’s logic is very simple: we want to pull every single financial lever we have, to strengthen and fast track our defence production. With the REARM Europe plan, we can mobilise up to EUR 800 billion,” von der Leyen said.
She elaborated on the elements of the plan and concluded her speech with the words: “We all wish we could live in more peaceful times, without any question. But I’m confident that if we unleash our industrial power, we can restore deterrence against those who seek to harm us. It is time to build a European Defence Union that ensures peace on our continent, through unity and through strength.”